The Good Shepherd
Notes
Transcript
Welcome to 2024
Welcome to 2024
This is our first Sunday in 2024
and typically this is our vision Sunday.
The day that we celebrate our church and the vision that we have, so that we can complete our mission.
we existing to Glorify God and Grow others in Christ Jesus
Today our Message is the GOOD SHEPHERD
and so timely to our vision for the future
We want to Shepherd others --- to lead them to a deeper relationship with Christ.
Our Vision is to Follow Him
We exist to Glorify God by Growing Others
Shepherds and Sheep
Shepherds and Sheep
Sheep herding in Ancient Times was not the same as you see on TV today in Western Culture.
Sheep were kept for the most part in pens - open to the sky and closed on three sides.
Sheep were protected in the walls of the pen in the night.
and in the morning
the shepherd would call to them and they would go out into the pasture to water and feed.
The shepherds knew the pastures
and would lead the sheep to fresh grass and water and often stay there for a time.
Constructing a pen in the area --- often using rock alcoves for the walls on two or three sides.
TODAY we often see the Shepherds today as more of a Herder
you ask what is the difference?
( CONGREGATION =REPEAT — What is the Difference?)
A herder leads from the rear and the side.
A herder pushes his flock
Cattle drives in the Old Westerns, or in Yellowstone
the livestock is driven, not lead.
Could you imagine in those old western leading
They find the livestock in the field and yell lets GO, turn and ride off.
or starts to sing “get a long lil doggie”
My guess — The livestock would simply look up and go back down to eat paying little attention to the ‘shepherd”
The Jews in our verses where seeking to push the flock of God by whipping them with the LAW
But beauty and truth is in the Word
the most beautiful verse in our study today is verse 14
The New International Version (Chapter 10)
I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me
A Shepherd leads from the front, calling to his flock,
Jesus wants you to know HIS VOICE,
and He with us, as under shepherds, are to train others to hear His VOICE
hear His voice and know the LOVE that is in IT.
the sheep are Focused on the Shepherd and not the Surroundings.
We must Follow Jesus, and even with our heads down
we hear His voice and know where to follow
The shepherd leads with his voice,
Specific Words or simply singing songs and rhymes that the sheep hear and obey.
What are you going to listen to in 2024?
How are you doing with your Focus?
What is your mission and vision in 2024
Do you want to be herded or do you want to Follow the Shepherd?
Two people were watching a man drive a herd of sheep through the main street of a small town.
“I thought shepherds led sheep. I didn’t know they drove them with a whip.”
“They do,” the other fellow remarked. “That’s not a shepherd. That’s the town’s butcher.”
you see Satan is the butcher seeking to devour and destroy
Satan is our wolf in our Scripture this morning.
Our verses today have a few characters in it.
A first century Christian would have heard these verses very clearly
but we may have a small challenge as we live in a different time.
These verse are still connected to the lesson last week
Jesus has healed the blind and the Pharisees attacked Him
I believe that our verses today are an answer
to the Spiritual Blindness that the Jewish leaders were displaying
and an answer for us today as we struggle keeping our
Jesus Goggles on and firm planted so that we see things properly.
For the blind need a guide
and we all need a Shepherd to guide us.
Jesus is calling out the false shepherds
Ezeziel 34 is a good chapter of the Old Testament for you to review in your deeper study this week.
God calls out the false shepherds of Israel for failing the flock
God is calling them out 500-600 years before Christ.
Amazing that in 500-600 BC God calls them out
and they go from bad to worse.
Jesus is calling them Spiritual Blind,
and is reminding them of the Word of God
The Jews were called to be “good” shepherds
and NOW the GOOD Shepherd has arrived to save the Flock
Lets read along.
Please note --- notice that the majority of our verses today are in RED
these are Words that our Lord and Saviour spoke for our eternity.
John 10:1–21 (ESV)
1 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber.
2 But he who enters by the door is the shepherd of the sheep.
3 To him the gatekeeper opens. The sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.
5 A stranger they will not follow, but they will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers.”
6 This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.
7 So Jesus again said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep.
8 All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not listen to them.
9 I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture.
10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
11 I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.
12 He who is a hired hand and not a shepherd, who does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.
13 He flees because he is a hired hand and cares nothing for the sheep.
14 I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me,
15 just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.
16 And I have other sheep that are not of this fold. I must bring them also, and they will listen to my voice. So there will be one flock, one shepherd.
17 For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again.
18 No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”
19 There was again a division among the Jews because of these words.
20 Many of them said, “He has a demon, and is insane; why listen to him?”
21 Others said, “These are not the words of one who is oppressed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind?”
The gatekeeper
- one view of the gatekeeper is as a role and not a specific person
--- I am a gate keeper, you are a gatekeeper, Jesus is a gatekeeper. Pastor or Person we all have the opportunity to manage the gate for Jesus.
The shepherd — the hero of our story
we are all shepherds or in Biblical terms --- we are all undershepherds of the GOOD Shepherd
We are to lead a flock, which may be yourself, your friends, your family, a group, etc.
the Father --- who is God alone
Thieves and Robbers — Those in our life that seek to take us away
to seek to change our focus.
To try to get us to go over the fence and not through the gate
Jesus is calling out the FALSE SHEPHERDS
hired hands not a shepherd ---- selfish people that are there for the gain and not the Glory of God.
That when the tough challenges come they abandon the sheep
because they aren’t there for the sheep but for the money or worldly gain.
the flock
The flock is a foreshadowing of the Christian Church today.
Not Jews, but Believers and Becomers of Christ Jesus
Not by birth, nationality or race, but
ALL JOINED BY THE BLOOD OF JESUS.
and the Wolf a reference to Evil, to Satan, to the Dark forces that
desire to scatter the flock, to break the unity, destroy the focus,
and cause CHAOS in the life of a Christian.
Weak Christians will scatter
so it is imperative that we teach, encourage and strengthen others
We say that People drift away
and it is BECAUSE they don’t know the voice and don’t follow
the Good SHEPHERD
I KNOW MY SHEEP AND MY SHEEP KNOW ME
I KNOW MY SHEEP AND MY SHEEP KNOW ME
Does it warm your heart to know that Jesus knows you?
How about that HE alone knows the Real you and Still loves you?
Can we celebrate the Promises, the Provisions, and the Protection of Christ?
Just think of the Beauty in these messages
Christ comes to provide a place where we can live, be fed - watered, Christ brings us the 3 sides of protection
We are protected by Him from Death, from wandering with no focus, and attends to our EVERY NEED
We simply need to follow.
Jesus doesn’t drive us, whip us into shape, or force us to accept His way
Jesus offers us the ability to Believe in HIM — Follow HIM
He not only offers it, but laid down His life for it.
Just listen to the Words that Paul wrote about CHRIST:
Philippians 2:6–9 (ESV)
6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name,
Friends
We must follow Christ
we obey and follow as His loved flock.
We struggle often with following and some of us have a great desire to lead.
We must get our mission in 2024 to be to lead others
but we lead them to FOLLOW JESUS.
As day come at times --- there are times this year you will
find it hard to know what to do, how to handle something.
But the answer will and must be to Look to the GOOD SHEPHERD
TO simply Follow
to know that He provides the perfect pastures, the water of life,
and protection as we rest from the “thiefs and robbers, the “false shepherds” and most importantly the Evil wolf.
As we breath in and out every day of 2024, may we listen to the
soft still voice of our Lord Jesus
Giving Thanks that HE alone is the Good Shepherd
Lets Pray.